Golden Lullaby
by ChibiTotoroSophie
Summary: Garet/Mia Garet is having trouble finding the right time to talk to Mia privatly!! YAY! ANOTHER CHEESY ROMANCE!!! my first GS fic! Please review!
1. Love Monkey

Hi everyone!!!!! Welcome to my first Golden Sun fic! Hope you like it!!! More coming!!!

Golden Lullaby 

The campfire glowed softly against the trees surrounding them in the small clearing. A circle of oak and fir trees ringed the outside of the small camp consisting of a fire and four rolls of bedding spread around it. The gentle sound of an ocarina drifted on the breeze and rolled through the ears of anyone close enough to hear the soft melody. Ivan sat on a stump, far enough away from the fire so that only his face was touched by the warmth, and breathed into the instrument with ease. 

            Garet sat at the edge of the clearing, staring off into the trees. _This is what comes with being the only one trained at guarding…_he thought, _first watch…_

            The little fire in the center of the clearing reached its warm arms out to him and lashed his back, wrapping his spine in pure joy of heat. He shivered, hugging his arms about him and rubbing at his bare skin. He made a mental note to buy a long-sleeved tunic in the next town.

            His sword lay across his lap, the blade gleaming in the dark. He yawned widely and stretched, only to bring his hands back to warm his bare arms.

            Mia sat on her bedroll in front of the fire, her hair let down around her shoulders and her staff tucked away behind her. She listened to Ivan's music and warmed her hands. She had taken her gloves off and stored them in her pack, no need for them after they had gotten out of Imil. It was warmer, it seemed, in everywhere but Imil.

            She sighed. She missed her home.

            Garet glanced back, shiny blue hair catching his eye. He brought a hand up to his mouth and rubbed his chin. "Mia…" he whispered to himself, hoping she wouldn't hear. Yet wishing she would.

            He had been taught the lesson back in Vale: never fall for your companions. He always knew he would heed that warning. So far, he had followed it, but after leaving Mercury Lighthouse and Imil, he had time on their journey south to look at the beautiful companion they had picked up on the way.

            He didn't think Mia saw him like he saw her. He saw her gentle blue eyes, her lush lips and lean figure. He heard her sweet voice and soaked in all her words like a sponge in water. Somewhere back in his head was a small word, 'love', but he hadn't found it yet. His feels were still on the line of crush, but it would grow until he had to confront her about it, or be a prisoner in his own mind, and heart. 

            Mia closed her eyes and sighed. She left guilty at leaving Imil and all the ill she had yet to help. _But I suppose the Hermes Water will help them now. They have no need of me anymore._ She hoped Megan would grow to be a strong healer in her absence, but she wished she could teach her.

            Isaac tromped back into camp, his arms full of wood and two small birds dangling at his waist. Garet got up from his post and went over.

            "Finally, food." He reached out and tore the birds from Isaac's belt. He knelt and started feeding sticks into the fire.

            "You cook, Garet," Isaac told him, flopping back on his bedding and staring up at the stars. Garet sat next to Mia in the dirt, and started pulling the feathers from the birds' bodies.

            "Can you strip…"

            "What?" Mia turned to him and looked at the sticks he was holding out. He turned red and swallowed the cotton in his mouth.

            "…these sticks?" She gave him a look. "For the birds…" he mumbled. She took the sticks and pulled a dagger from her boot.

            _Man…_Garet cursed himself. _I'm such a idiot…_

            He pulled his own dagger out and started to gut and clean the now featherless birds.

            Ivan's music stopped and he came to sit by his friends, a small smile on his face, "Dinner?" He looked at the birds in Garet's hands. Garet nodded. 

            They sat in silence for a few moments, Isaac sighed, Mia scrapped the sticks, and Ivan stared into the fire.

            "Do you think we'll get her back?"

            "What?" Isaac sat up and looked at Mia.

            "That girl Jenna," she said.

            Isaac bit his tongue and looked at Garet. He could see the hurt in his face. "God, I hope so…"

            Garet tossed a hunk of bad meat into the fire. Silence.

            There was a crash in the forest beyond. All heads snapped up and looked towards the sound. 

            "Monkeys," Ivan said. Everyone nodded; inhabitants of Mogall Forest.

            Minutes later, Isaac had rigged up a spit above the fire and Garet was turning the browning birds slowly over the fire. There was more crashing in the brush.

            They ate the roasted birds with fresh spring water, then Mia, Garet and Ivan curled up in their bedding, leaving Isaac for watch.

            Mia's eyes fluttered open when something smashed into her mouth. She lay paralyzed with fear, only to look down and see a hand flopped on her mouth. Her eyes went narrow when she recognized the skin.

            Tilting her head up, the hand rolled off her mouth. "Garet," she whispered.

            There was a moan from the respondent.

            "Garet," she tried again.

            This time, Garet turned over, his face squished up against his arm; drool making a line from his mouth and onto his tunic.

            "Garet…" 

            "Hmm…. Mia…" Garet's face lit with a small grin.

            "Garet, your hand."

            "Yes, Mia….Yes…"

            She growled, "Garet, get you hand off…"

            With a suck of spit, his eyes blinked open, and he looked up his arm to his hand resting on Mia's throat.

            "Mia!" He gasped.

            "Hi, Garet," she cooed.

            He gulped nervously, realizing that his hand was touching her skin, and the softness of her neck no less. He sat frozen, unsure of what to do.

            Mia cleared her throat. "Your hand…" she looked down at his hand, then back at him. He just stared back. With a sigh, she was forced to pull her arm from under the blanket and lifted his hand up by the wrist and dropped it in the dirt.

            "Sorry…" Garet blushed. He turned around, his back to her and stared into the woods.

            There was silence again, then…

            "Garet?"

            Garet's heart did a leap, "Y-yeah?"

            "I…"

            "Giant…freaking…monkey!" Crashing out of the woods, Isaac came tumbling into camp. Ivan, rubbing at his eyes, and Mia and Garet sat up.

            "What?" Garet shouted, angry at his friend for disturbing his moment with Mia.

            "Big monkey!" Issac screamed again, "Ape!"

            His companions jumped up, tossed on their gear and scrambled through the forest until they ran into a gigantic, gray furred ape.

            "Monkey!" Isaac shouted, pointing a quivering finger at the monstrous figure.

            Garet went into stance, his sword in front of him, "Bring it on, Monkey Man!" 

            The giant ape let out a deafening roar and charged at them. Blue filled the air as Mia tried to cast a protection spell before the ape could do any harm to her friends. Isaac slashed his sword upward, cutting a slit in the ape's chest, but not seeming to weaken him a bit.

            "Damn it! Ivan!" Isaac turned to the wind seer. Ivan nodded and raised his staff. A shot of lightening fell from the sky and struck the ape, knocking him back and allowing Garet to charge forward and leap upon the monkey.

            "Die, monkey scum!" He raised his sword high for the kill when a giant curled and hairy fist … 


	2. Bread and Blush

            Stars flittered with him as he sunk into a pool of deep blue mud. The sky above him swirled in a fiery pit of orange and…green? The stars circling him dove in and out of the blue mud, scorching his skin as they soared past, sending sparks racing through his body. He watched as the mud engulfed his head and slowly pulled him down to the bottom of the pool. He didn't feel short of breath, although he didn't remember breathing, or having to, and he looked around with wide, brown eyes as a pale hand reached out in front of him from nowhere and clasped him on the forehead. He screamed, but not having to breathe made his struggle fruitless, no sound came out of his gaping mouth.

            A smiling face with blue hair a shade lighter than the blue mud appeared from behind the pale hand. The face was just as pale as the hand it owned, and he smiled when he saw that the face was Mia's, his beloved Mia. He reached out to pull her close, but his smile disappeared like water washing away mud when he saw her eyes. They were each a dark pool as deep as the one he had sunk in, and her teeth curled into long fangs protruding from her mouth. He tried to kick her away when a ghostly voice filled his ear.

            "Garet."

            He recognized the sweet voice as Mia's, but he turned white in the mud when he heard the voice again and didn't see the lips of the monster whose hand was now clenched around his neck, move. He…

            …sat up with a thrashing of blankets, hot sweat dripping down his face, running down his nose as he clawed at the blankets and the moist something wrapped around his throat.

            "Gods, Garet!" 

            He scratched at the cloth around his neck and pulled it off. It was long and soaked in cool water, turned warm from his nightmare. Panting, he looked around at the blurry faces of Isaac and Ivan, sitting on stools a little away from the bed he was in. He bunched his eyebrows together in confusion.

            "Where…?" He was cut short by a groan of displease and turned his head. Sitting at the other side of his bed sat Mia, her hands held in her lab, a pulsating blue glow dying at her fingertips. She looked at him with a tight mouth and hard eyes before getting up and walking out of the room. He listened to her footsteps before turning back to Isaac and Ivan.

            "What…?"

            Ivan shook his blond head, "She was trying to help you heal. You broke her concentration by speaking."

            He looked around the room: the walls where a light, grainy wood streaked hung over with show quilts and framed pictures, and the floors were strewn with brightly woven rugs. Each little table was decked with a vase of flowers and a candle and there were windows randomly placed on the wall at the head of his bed. He sat up against the fluffy pillows.

            A plump woman in a dark green dress and white sash came up the stairs and into his room with a knock. She smiled and placed a tray of steaming bowls of soup and hot bread on the table beside Garet's bed.

            "Food for you and your friends, youngling. Rest as long as you like," she smiled some more, her red cheeks balls of roses.

            "Who…?" 

            She patted his arm before turning on her slippers and walking away. Isaac and Ivan both grinned and reached hungrily for their bowls of soup. Garet rubbed his head, bewildered at it all.

            Mia came back and sat at his bedside. Nothing about her seemed to have changed, expect she radiated a perfumed smell of herbs. He nodded to her and offered her a bowl of soup and a hunk of bread before taking his own.

            He gulped down bread soaked in soup, and licked his lips. "When…?"

            Mia slurped from her bowl. "The monkey knocked you out."

            "Yeah," Isaac piped up, a crumb of bread and piece of carrot hanging from his mouth, "he got you pretty good, Garet. You were bleedin' bad for awhile until Ivan pulled some herbs from his pouch," he glanced at Ivan and nodded before licking up the food from slipping down his chin.

            Ivan reached for the last piece of bread, but Isaac glared at him and slapped his hand away. 

            "That's mine."

            Ivan glared back, "I touched it first."

            "Hmmm…." Isaac thought. "No. I did," with a sweep of his hand he snatched up the bread and waved it in front of Ivan's face with a grin before bring it to his mouth and licking the crust. "My germs."

            Ivan nodded a bit and turned his head, sipping at his soup again. With a smirk of triumph, Isaac put the bread in his mouth and…

            Ivan turned his head and spat a mouthful of soup right into Isaac's face, contaminating the bread and watching as soup dripped down the bread-stealer's face. With a grin to match all evil, Ivan jumped up and ran out the room screaming, "My germs!"

            With a growl, Isaac let his soup bowl clash to the ground and took off chasing the perpetrator of his bread.

            Garet rubbed his head, in confusion and felt a small lump. He winced and sunk back into his pillows. "Why…?"

            Mia set her bowl down and waved his sentence short. "They're both idiots." She looked down and saw his bowl, yet untouched. "You should eat," she said, "we're not going to stay here to much longer. Eat as much as you can… if that's possible, considering how much you already consume." She smiled shyly at him.

            He ran his fingers over the range of lumps on his head, wincing as his rough hands touched them. Mia rolled her eyes and picked up his bowl.

            "Here," she reached out the bowl to his lips and pressed the rim against his mouth, forcing him to open. He frozen, feeling his ears and cheeks get hot and tingly, but letting the soup slide down his throat and fill his stomach. Slowly, he brought his hand down from scratching his head and covered Mia's, holding the bowl for him.

            She turned a shade of pink and drew her hand away. Garet hadn't yet gotten a firm hold on the bowl and it fell to the bed, covering the blankets in soggy vegetables and broth. Mia gasped and immediately stood, whipping the wet cloth from the bedside table and started to try to soak in the soup before it seeped through the covers.

            "Gods! I'm sorry, Garet!" He noticed she was turning redder by the moment, and he smiled. "I'm so… I'm so clumsy sometimes."

            He reached over and caught her wrist. Her hand dropped the cloth, now wet with spilt soup. She shut her gaping mouth.

            "Mia," he started, "I want to tell you…"

            Ivan marched back into the room, munching on a piece of bread and looking quite smug with himself. Isaac stumbled in behind him, his arms folded across his chest, mumbling. 

            "Tattle butt…"

            Ivan grinned and sat back down on his stool, chewing on the bread and smacking his mouth with each chew, "Yum yum! This is soooooo good, Isaac. Wow, you sure are missing out on a whooooole lot! Yum, and it's still hot too!" He bit into the crust and smiled at Isaac.

            "Tattle but…" Isaac repeated.

            Neither of them seemed to notice Garet holding Mia's wrist, the bed, or the floor for that matter, drenched in soup, and the increasingly redness of both of them as they watched their friends bicker back and forth.

            Mia pulled her wrist from Garet's loosened grip and turned away.

            "I'll go get a mop…"


	3. A Pig Under the Table

First off, I just want to clear up some personality stuff with the characters! This is what I think each character is like: **Isaac**- doesn't really know what he's doing, is quick to make major decisions without thinking about them first, but when it comes to taking up leadership, or anything heavy duty, he's always the first to fall back. **Garet**- is a lour mouth at times, but is mostly quiet, until it comes to decisions, then he blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. He's sometimes drawn in on himself, because he feels like no one loves him, and he needs more than just one friend, aka Isaac. **Ivan**- is the smart-mouth of the group. He's still learning his way around, but because of his experiences, he's a lot smarter and wiser in the ways than Isaac, that's why he and him don't get along. Really looks up to Mia as a mentor. **Mia**- she's really the only smart one in the group. Knows what she's doing all the time, and things about things before she does or says them. She's wise in the way of Psy and magics, but is new to fighting in general.

**_            Chapter 3: A Pig Under the Table_**

            Later that evening, Isaac and Ivan were playing a game of marbles on the floor with their Djinn. Garet sat in his bed, his feet stretched out over the end, and Mia sat in a stool on the other side of the room, her head bowed as she looked at her hands in her lap. She'd been like that for hours and when she looked up, her neck cracked painfully. 

            Ivan looked up at the sound and stared at Mia longingly for a moment, his eyes shinnying, wishing for her to come and sit next to him. He loved Mia in a way, not the way to make his heart thump with every word she spoke, but with a love of fondness. He envied her powers, her strength and her passion for her work. He remembered her sadness at leaving Imil, her students there, and failing in protecting the Mercury Lighthouse. He wished to be like her in everyway. He longed to talk to her, ask her, beg her if necessary, to teach him of her healing powers, but all he could do at the moment was stare at his idol and watch her cast the spells he wished he had the strength to learn, and leap out of his pants whenever they fell into battle, fearing the worst would come to her and he would never get his chance to ask her if he could become her apprentice. 

            Snapping out of his trance, he looked back down at his game with Isaac.

"Ah, younglings! My husband and I would like to invite you to dinner!" The woman in the green dress and white sash from earlier entered the room and smiled, looking into each of their faces.

            Mia rubbed her neck and nodded, "Thank you very much, ma'am, that'd be wonderful."

            Isaac, getting frustrated with playing with the unruly Djinns, picked his up and stuffed them in his pocket before glaring at Ivan evilly.

            "You cheated."

            Ivan shook his head. "I'm merely superior to your Djinn-marble skills." He returned glare with an equally smug grin, thoughts of Mia vanished when Isaac accused him of cheating. "And you stole Gust!"

            About this time, Garet sat up. The woman waddled over to him, "How're you doing, little one? Yer head had quite a nasty bumpin' when your friends here dragged you in. Pale as a ghost you were, too." She put a gentle hand on his forehead.

            "Oh…" he fumbled with his words, "I'm alright…"

            The woman stood and dusted her hands off. "Well then, dinner's served in 20 minutes! I expect to see you there before you head back out on yer journey. Mighty good food, too, if I don't say so myself," with a smile, she left.

            Ivan and Garet exchanged a look, and Ivan held out a hand to receive his stolen wind Djinn. Isaac handed it back, mumbling at being caught, and Ivan grinned.

            "Strange old coot, ain't she?"

            Twenty minutes later, Isaac, Ivan, Garet and Mia managed to tumble down the stairs and met the woman's husband in the family dining room.

            "Well, well, well! Ain't you bunch a fill for da eye!" He hardily shook the boys' hands, squeezing their small hands in his large one, and surprisingly, gave Mia's hand a soft kiss to rival the touch of a newborn kitten. "My name be Roman, welcome to my little inn! Food is right this way, lassie, if you please." With a wave of his hand, he ushered them to the table.

            He took the seat at the head of the table. Isaac, taking a liking to the big, burly man already, sat to his right, leaving only two seats left on that side. Garet went to the chair next to Isaac, just wanting to stretch his long legs out, and pulled the chair out. Mia eyed the seat next to the one Garet was pulling out, and made her move to sit. Ivan, seeing Mia's targeted chair, immediately rushed to sit next to his mentor, untimely plopping down in Garet's chair. 

            He received a slap in the back of the head. "Hey, get out of my chair."

            Mia looked over to see Ivan sitting in the chair next to her, and got up. Ivan looked up, saw Garet's mean face over him, and stood up in fear of being slapped again. Garet sighed and sat back down, which was when Ivan decided he didn't want to play this game of goose chase and fell into the seat next to Garet. At this, Mia let out a quiet grunt of frustration. So she rounded the table and sat on the far right on the other side, across from Ivan, much to his delight.

            Roman watched this ordeal with furrowed, bushy eyebrows. When they were seated, he grinned at them sheepishly and banged his gigantic fist on the tabletop.

            "Well!" He roared. "Always nice to see a spunky bunch of younglings like yerself!" He leaned over the table, his barrel chest taking up the entire space at the head of the table. "Tell ole Roman yer names!"

            Garet, looked up from his folded arms on the table and mumbled, "I'm Garet."

            Ivan leaned over the table in order to be seen from behind Garet, and waved slightly at the large innkeeper. "I am Ivan," he said with a smile and getting a wide, yellow-toothed smile in return. 

"And a cheat," Isaac added under his breath.

Ivan 'humphed' and sank back into his chair.

            Isaac turned and beamed at Roman, "I would be Isaac. Nice you meet you, sir. Your wife is a wonderful cook, we had a small sample of her cooking earlier." Garet glanced up from his arms; he had never seen Isaac grin so widely. He snorted.

            Mia brought a fist up to her mouth and coughed silently, the small noise bringing all attention onto her. She looked up and smiled, "I'm Mia, of the Mercury Clan," she said with a nod.

            Roman's eyes lit up and he leaned back in his chair, tipping on the creaking back legs, "ho, ho! A member of the Clan, io? Well, ain't that something?" He turned to the boys and nodded, a look of disbelief on his face. Ivan nodded wildly. Garet and Isaac rolled their eyes at Ivan's enthusiasm and went back to staring at the table.

            Several moments of silence passed until the big man leaned forward on the table again and looked from at each of the boys in turn.

            "Seen my daughter, yet, eh? Seen 'er?" He tilted his head up to one side to glance at the boys from the corner of his eyes. "Seen 'er yet, boys?"

            They shook their heads. Roman's eyes lit up again and he leaned back, his hands on his bulging belly and he shook the table with his laugh. 

            "Well, boys! Yer getting a treat tonight!" He spread his arms out from him, nearly knocking Isaac from his chair, "she's a beaut, she is! Long hair down to her buttocks, peachy color," He stood and turned around, putting his hand just above his large butt to show how long her hair was, " and creamy eyes!" He turned back around and sat down. The chair creaked dangerously, but settled. "Yer getting' a great treat tonight, yer are, boys! Best breed in this fair town, she is! Long peachy hair down her to buttocks, creamy eyes, rosy lips!" He leaned over the table again, his little beady eyes bearing into those the Garet's, Isaac's and Ivan's in turn, "just the way you like it, io? Just the way you like it?" He burrowed into the boy's souls with those little eyes, making them all gulp and nodded helplessly, as if under a spell.

            Roman grunted with satisfaction. His little wife waddled in, arms loaded with plates. Roman turned to her and beamed, "just they way like it, m'girl! Long hair and creamy eyes!" His wife nodded and smiled.

            "Ain't that so?" She set the plates down in front of them, and passed them around the table, "Well, I'll just have to go get the darlin', won't I? Let these boys see for themselves!" With that, she walked out.

            Roman let out a booming laugh, and let his eyes slide over to Mia. She sat alone in the corner, not noticing the stares she was getting from Ivan and Garet. Roman cleared his throat, "and there're plenty of fine young lads in the village fer yer, lassie!" He cleared his throat again, and turned his head when Mia only nodded. His wife waddled back in, a tall girl in tow, both carrying platters of food.

            "Here's the little one now!" The three boys turned around to see the infamous daughter their host had been rambling about. Her hair was indeed down past her butt, the color indeed peachy, and her heavily lashed eyes indeed creamy colored. But the boys cringed, and tried to smile when she lifted her gaze to them, for her face was round and plump, to match the rest of her body, and splotched with light brown. And the spots weren't freckles either; it looked more like a large rash had taken over her face. 

            She smiled back at them, her fat lips parting to reveal teeth as yellow as her father's. Isaac inwardly gagged, and Garet just plain turned away. 

            _Gods_, Ivan thought, _poor soul was pushed down a well! Or attacked by slime! Or beaten with a heavy rod as a child!_

            Roman grinned brightly at his pride and joy and beckoned to her. She scampered over and stood, her hands clasped in front of her. 

            "Darlin', this is Isaac, Garet and Ivan, they're to be our dinner guests!"

            "Yes, Papa." She nodded to each of them, "hello." She smiled, and then sat next to Mia. Her mother dished out piles of food, then sat next to her husband, and folded her napkin in her lap.

 "Eat up!" 

Then, as pigs dash for the hogs' mush, all three of them started stuffing their faces, food flying everywhere. Ivan and Mia glanced at each other in wonderment, then went on to eat quietly.

            Garet and Isaac decided to take on the nature of their hosts, and had their plates to their mouths, shoving food in as fast as they could, making sounds like a horse in labor.

            All through the meal, Mia and Ivan dunked flying bones, potatoes and drinks. During a dunk, Mia's napkin dropped from her lap and under the table, so she bent down to pick it up.

            Halfway through his chicken leg, Garet noticed his fork slipped of his napkin, which was crumbled up on the table, and clank to the floor. With a heavy sigh at having to leave his food, he dropped the leg, adding to the pile growing on his plate, and dropped to his knees to pick it up. His hand landed on a napkin.

            "That's mine."

            He looked up and quickly tried to wipe the food from his face. "Uh… Mia. What're you doing…?"

            She pointed to her napkin under his hand, "My napkin fell." She reached for it, and her head bumped against his shoulder. "Oops, sorry…" She tried to pry it from under his hand. As her head hit his shoulder, his eyes darted around with nervousness at her touch, and happened to spot his fork behind her. His hand still on the napkin, he reached forward to get it.

            Mia pulled back, having succeeded in getting her napkin, only to be greeted by Garet's cheek as it smacked against hers. When he got his fingers around the fork, he made a lightening quick decision, and turned his cheek a bit to plant a kiss on…. 

Mia turned her head and backed up a bit right as Garet turned his head to kiss her. His lips completely missed her face entirely and he fell forward, his face hitting the ground instead by Roman's daughter's feet. His eyes widened and he scrambled up and back to his seat, fork in hand. Mia appeared above the table, a small grin on her face, and continued to eat, her napkin folded in her lap, with her eyes lowered, and her smirk plastered on.


	4. Mud First

            They ran out of the village that night, much to Roman's disapproval. He watched them at the door of his inn, hands holding his swollen, grumbling belly. Maybe some other day some nice lads would come to the village and take his darlin' off his hands. Mumbling something about pigs, he wandered back into the inn.

            Isaac, Ivan, Garet and Mia had gone far south and had reached a river only a hour after leaving the village, rushing in their desperate struggle to get away from the big father trying to find wooers for his ugly daughter. The sun was bleeding red and orange along the skyline, slowing sinking into the ocean they've never seen far off in the distance. Isaac climbed up onto a rock and stood looking off south, in the direction they were to head.

            "We should stop for tonight," he suggested. "It's already late." Everyone nodded and started the setting of camp.

            Ivan rolled out the bed mats and had started a small fire by the time Garet and Isaac came back with armloads of wood and several small, hitchhiking bugs. They dropped the load next to the fire and plopped down onto their bedrolls, stretching and yawning.

            Garet looked around. "Where's Mia?"

            She had escaped the boys' gaze and wandered off behind a small line of boulders on the riverbank. Letting the warm breeze help her along, she stripped off her heavy robe and stood in the shallows of the river only in thin underclothes, letting the water run between her toes and rush around her ankles. Another regret of leaving Imil was the hot water, out here she couldn't bathe everyday, especially with a group of boys hanging around, and when they did stop long enough to actually relax, the surrounding rivers or lakes of their campsite were too freezing to bathe in. _I guess we aren't far south enough yet, to have warmer waters_, she thought, and slid down into the river.

            Isaac flicked a glow bug from his shoulder and stirred the fire with a charred stick. The meal at the inn had filled everyone's stomachs, making their eyes droopy, and the heat from the burning wood pushed into their pores and softened their bones. Ivan pulled up his thin blanket around his shoulders, then rummaged in his bag and pulled out a lute. Garet and Isaac looked at him curiously.

            "Lute," Garet stated stupidly with a yawn. Ivan started to strum experimentally.

            Lulled half to sleep by the quiet sounds of the lute, Garet yawned widely and reached into his bag for his canteen. Twisting off the cap, two small droplets dripped onto his tongue when he turned it upside down. Mumbling a protest, he clambered up and went down the bank to the river.

            Climbing over the moss-slippery rocks proved a challenge to his tired body. Once to the top, he slid to the ground and sat crouched in the sand regaining some strength before getting up and crawling, with his canteen dangling from his mouth, to the water's edge. On his hands and knees, he dunked his head under the water, gripping the canteen tightly in his teeth and watched the air bubbles billow up from the spout as it filled with cool water. 

            Mia surfaced her head above the water to see Garet's butt sticking out of the lake. She hesitated, screamed and swam as fast as she could over to him, thinking some horrible river monster was dragging him under.

            "Garet, Garet, Garet!" she screamed, taking his shoulders and flipping him over and into the water. He opened his mouth in surprise and took a deep breath of river water that gushed into his lugs like fire ice. Flailing his arms and legs around, Mia grabbed his chin and yanked his head above the surface, where he gagged up green water and took a much-needed breath of fresh air.

            "Oh Gods, Garet, are you all right?" She held him above the water as he spewed the water that had filled his lungs. He coughed and wagged his arms under the water, pushing away from her grip.

            "W-why did you do that?!" He belched air and sighed. Mia looked at him with uncertainty.

            "You were being pulled in by a river monster," she said. "…Weren't you?"

            "I was filling my canteen!" As if to prove the fact, it floated by, bubbling from the neck as it took in more water. The strap caught on a piece of driftwood and weed, and was washed up on shore.

             They awkwardly floated in the water for several quiet minutes. Then Garet started to blush.

            Mia's long, wet, blue hair clung to her face and neck and sprayed out in the water behind her, tugging along with the pull of the current. Her silken underclothes stuck to her body, seductively attaching themselves to her curves that would make any man stare in awe. Her cheeks were rosy from the kiss of the cold water, and her lips were red and full. Garet cleared his throat nervously, disguising it as a cough. Mis noticed his extra-red face, and her eyes widened a bit.

            "Oh…" Slowly she brought her hands up around her body protectively, and smiled shyly. "Umm…"

            Garet turned his eyes down to the water and studied a passing fish interestingly. He cleared his throat. "Mia?"

            She looked up. "Garet?"

            "I…" he took a step forward and suddenly the mud under him slipped. His foot getting stuck in the mud, he lurched forward, grabbed onto Mia's shoulders, and pulled her under with him. They did a twisting water ballet under the surface for a moment before Mia pried Garet's hands from her and came to the surface with a gasp of air. Scrambling, she searched the water. Garet's vest floated to the surface several feet away and started going downstream. She screamed.

            Isaac and Ivan came rushing up, sword and staff in hand, battle ready. Eyeing Mia frantically searching the water, they ran down the bank and waded in knee deep.

            "Garet!" she screamed, digging through the water with claw like fingers. Sheathing his sword, Isaac dived in and touched around in the mud, searching for his friend. Ivan stood knee-deep in the water, helpless.

            Isaac surfaced and took a deep breath, and Ivan walked down stream and picked up Garet's vest with the tip of his staff.

            Crawling up on the other side of the river, Garet looked like a monster from the deep. His body was coated with the thick mud that had dragged him down, and little bits of weed stuck to the mud, making him look like some shaggy mud demon. Rubbing mud from his eyes, he stood and watched his friends search the water. Gagging on the water that welled up in his throat, he spit up into the river with a noise like a cat choking on a hairball. Hearing the sound, Mia looked up, saw the mud demon, and shrieked, "AHHHH!!!" Now scrambling, sinking chin-deep in the water to grab hold of Isaac, she pulled him up and thrust him towards the monster.

            Ivan saw this all and raised his staff, muttered some words of Psy, and cast Lightening on the mud-coated Garet. Shocked, literally, Garet fell to the ground and rolled around in the water, sending little bursts of lighting rushing through the current, electrocuting everything in its path. Isaac and Mia dived for the bank, getting little shocks just as their bodies hit the sand. Thinking on her stomach, Mia threw a Frost spell out to the lake, preventing any electricity shocking Isaac's and her toes. Cracking their feet out of the iced water, they stood, dripping on the sand, looking at the frozen mud demon under the river's water.

            Mia sighed, then looked around. "Where's Garet?" Ivan stood further away, staff still raised and Isaac stood next to her, shaking his head. Mia looked back to the river… "Garet!" Shocked with lightening and her discovery, she rushed forward, screamed at Isaac to cast a melt spell, and pulled the mud dripping, charred Garet up onto the sand. She put his head in her lap and brushed cold and dried black mud from his face. "Garet! Wake up! Garet!"

            The warmth of the fire heated his eyelids, and slowly he opened them, but finding it harder to do so. With a painful peal of skin, his eyelids pulled back from the dried mud that stuck them together and his eyes snapped open. He lay with his head against Mia's lap still, but they had moved from the riverbank to the campsite. Most of his body was still coated in dry mud, but his face had been washed clean, the mud kept in heat as the fire's flames roared. Mia's head hung, her lips slightly parted as she slept in a sitting position above him, one hand halfway though a stroke of his hair. He reached a hand up to rub his eyes and the movement awaked the Water Seer. 

            She opened her eyes with a sigh, blinked sleep from them, and looked blurrily down at Garet. They sat staring at one another, at loss for words. 

            After awhile, the flickering of the fire warming their faces, Mia opened her mouth to speak. Garet raised a hand, baring mud-crusted fingers, and put them to her lips. She closed her mouth despite the taste of dirt.

            He noticed his hands were dirty, and quickly withdrew from touching her, and brushed them against his tunic. Flakes of mud fell away from his skin with each rub.

            "Garet…"she whispered, but he had cleaned his fingers and once against raised his hand. He traced his fingers down her cheek, feeling her warm skin beneath his, and leaned up and she leaned down at his delicate touch, moving in for their first kiss.

            There was nothing to disturb them from having it; Isaac and Ivan lay snoring on their bedrolls on the other side of the fire: Isaac sitting upright, no doubt having first watch over Mia and her muddy charge. Ivan was curled up under his thin blanket, completely invisible under the white sheet, and as their lips met, their warm, wet skin touching, there was a burst of joy, excitement and nervousness as they shared the thing they both had wished for. Mia closed her eyes after the initial shock, and gently leaned against his chest, deepening their kiss.

            Finally they pulled away, and both were once again speechless. Garet shifted his eyes nervously around, searching for any eyes that might had seen them, while Mia sat, lips again slightly parted, and gazed at him, her mouth close enough to Garet's skin to feel her hot breath.

            With the stars twinkling above, and the fire flickering next to them, warming their bodies and giving them safety, there was nothing more to say, and side by mud-flaky side, they fell asleep.


End file.
